✈️ Frontier Strands 9/11 Widow with Support Parrot, 75K AAdvantage Bonus & Air Travel Nightmares

Hello, and welcome to the Miles & Points Daily Podcast! I'm your host, Lucas, bringing you the latest news from the world of travel rewards. Let's dive right into yesterday's top stories. First up, we have a rather unfortunate situation with Frontier Airlines. An 81-year-old grandmother who is also a 9/11 widow found herself stranded in Puerto Rico when Frontier refused to let her fly home with her emotional support parrot named Plucky. What makes this particularly frustrating is that Frontier had approved the 10-ounce African Grey parrot for her outbound flight, but then changed their tune for the return journey. This is a good reminder to always double-check airline policies regarding emotional support animals, as they've become significantly stricter in recent years. In credit card news, there's a fantastic offer on the CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum card with a welcome bonus of 75,000 American Airlines miles after spending five thousand dollars in the first five months. The annual fee is waived for the first year, making this an excellent opportunity for those looking to boost their AAdvantage balance. What's particularly valuable about these miles is that they also count as Loyalty Points toward elite status with American Airlines. View from the Wing and One Mile at a Time are both reporting this as one of the best offers we've seen on this business card. Speaking of credit cards, Chase has a no-annual-fee card that makes your points more valuable. The Chase Freedom Unlimited card allows you to convert cash back into Ultimate Rewards points if you also hold a premium Chase card like the Sapphire Preferred or Reserve. This effectively makes your everyday spending more valuable since those points can be transferred to travel partners. It's a key strategy for many points enthusiasts to maximize their Chase transfers. For those tracking airline performance, Cirium's March rankings show Delta back on top for on-time performance, with United Airlines surging to second place. American Airlines came in sixth with the most cancellations. This data is useful if you're booking flights and trying to minimize the chance of delays or cancellations. Now for a couple of stories about passenger behavior that might make you cringe. An American Airlines passenger on a New York to Milan flight charged the cockpit after being denied an exit row seat while traveling with a lap infant and not receiving his first choice of meal. This forced the aircraft to turn back to JFK four hours into the journey, resulting in a frustrating eight-hour journey to nowhere for 270 passengers. In another incident, an Air India business class passenger who had consumed two whiskies urinated on a sleeping passenger. The offender was moved to economy class for landing and received a 30-day ban from the airline. Some exciting product news now – ANA has announced plans to overhaul the cabins of its international Boeing 787 fleet, including new business class seating. The project is expected to start in two thousand and twenty-six, with 35 existing jets and 27 on order to receive the upgrades. This follows Air France's recent launch of its new La Premiere first class private suites, which will be installed on at least 20 Boeing 777-300ERs by the end of two thousand and twenty-six. For those looking to buy points, Air France-KLM Flying Blue is currently offering a 45 percent discount when you purchase miles, bringing the cost down to about 1.68 cents per point. While not the best deal we've seen from Flying Blue, it could represent good value for specific redemptions. Similarly, Hilton Honors is offering a 100 percent bonus when buying points, which could be worth considering for high-value redemptions. If you're planning international travel, take note that Brazil has added an e-visa requirement for Americans and citizens of several other countries as of yesterday. This policy was first supposed to be implemented over a year ago but is now finally happening, making travel to Brazil slightly more expensive and requiring more advance planning. In some positive news for Chase customers, the bank is offering a phenomenal 900 dollar bonus for opening new checking and savings accounts. This promotion has been extended until July 16th, two thousand and twenty-five. You'll need to set up direct deposit to the checking account and deposit funds to the savings account to qualify. This is one of the best banking bonuses we've seen. And for those who might be planning summer travel to Scandinavia, Strawberry Hotels (formerly Nordic Choice) has brought back their Summer Pass program, which can offer significant savings on lodging throughout the region. Looking for the best award flights? Use AwardTravelFinder.com to search availability across Qatar Airways, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and more. Try it for free with our link in the shownotes. That wraps up today's news roundup. Thanks so much for listening to the Miles & Points Daily Podcast! If you found this information helpful, please subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or visit us at milesandpointsdaily.com. Until tomorrow, happy traveling and smart earning!